Because mitochondria are essential organelles for regulating energy homeostasis and intrinsic apoptosis, the perturbation of mitochondrial functions has been considered as an anticancer treatment. In this study, a new near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent probe, SiR-Mito11 was developed as a theragnostic agent for brain tumor by targeting mitochondria. SiR-Mito11 exhibited potential anticancer activity against glioma cells but tolerance in normal neuronal cells. We further confirmed that the selective accumulation of SiR-Mito11 in glioma cells disrupted mitochondria membrane potential, followed by apoptotic cell death.
This work was supported by Basic Research Program (2016R1C1B2014699) and through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Korean Government (Ministry of Science and ICT). Additionally, this work is funded by the Original Technology Research Program (NRF-2016M3C7A1904344) from NRF and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) Institutional Program (2E29190 and 2E29221) and also supported by 2018 Research Grant (PoINT) from Kangwon National University.
